10 Marketing Tactics To Increase Conversions

Drew Hendricks
, ContributorI cover what entrepreneurs are looking to learn.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Driving traffic to your website and landing pages isn’t enough; you need to convert those visitors into customers. And while that may sound simple to an outsider looking in, you know firsthand how difficult it can be to accomplish. Thankfully, there are plenty of proven tips and tricks designed to increase conversions and boost your ROI.

Conversion Funnel Refresher

There are various forms of the popular conversion funnel, and while each differs slightly, the purpose of the illustration remains the same: to guide customers from awareness to action. In this example, the conversion funnel has four steps: awareness, interest, desire, and action. Understanding how to manage each of these phases will allow you to better position yourself for sales.

Awareness. The first phase is obviously awareness. As soon as a person becomes aware of your brand, they transition from a consumer to a potential customer. Your goal then immediately becomes to move them from awareness to interest.

Interest. It’s during this phase that you have the potential customer interested and need to turn that intrigue into desire. This is arguably the hardest step, as you have to convince the individual that they actually want your product or service.

Desire. Once the potential customer desires your product, you need to give them reason to purchase the product. This usually depends on elements like price, brand value, and various logistics.

Action. Once the potential customer takes action, they become a customer. This group will represent a minute fraction of the total number of consumers that were in the original awareness phase of the funnel.

10 Tactics for Increasing Conversions

When you talk about increasing conversions, you’re ultimately referring to moving potential customers through the conversion funnel. Here are 10 marketing tips to facilitate this process:

Invest in crisp copy. Quality ad copy sells; there’s no way around it. If you want to increase conversions, you need to start by investing in good, compelling content.

Pay attention to headlines. One of the first things a user sees is the headline on a page. If you aren’t taking the time to develop highly engaging headlines, you’re probably experiencing higher-than-necessary bounce rates. According to Infinite Conversions, “Over 80% of abandoning visitors never return.” Therefore, your focus should be on converting visitors the first time they visit – not thinking about a subsequent visit in the future. That time will likely never come if you don’t work hard to convert them today. Even something as simple as an effective headline can play a part in this.

Use A/B split testing. Find an A/B split testing software or tool you like and get familiar with it. Everything from your site layout and titles to colors and images can and should be tested. The insights you gain from split testing will dictate how your marketing strategy proceeds. Just ask Amelia Showalter, the former Director of Digital Analytics for the Obama for America campaign in 2012. According to her estimates, A/B testing led to an additional $200 million in funding over the life of the campaign.

Utilize social media. Social media is one of your best tools for pushing consumers through the conversion funnel. If you can get people to follow you on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, you can slowly nudge them from awareness to action. Furthermore, studies suggest implementing social login features on your website can increase signups. While 86 percent of users won’t sign up for an account if it requires them to go through a new registration process, 77 percent are comfortable with social login options.

Narrow your focus. Have you ever considered that you might be casting too wide of a net? By narrowing your focus and honing in on a specific target market, you’ll begin to get higher quality leads. Set parameters for your target and forget about the rest.

Give email marketing a chance. Email marketing is a very valuable tool, with 68 percent of participating companies reporting a good or excellent ROI. However, remember that the average adult attention span is only eight seconds. If you’re going to use email marketing, keep the content short and to the point.

Make gradual changes. When you gain valuable insights from split testing and other analytics tools, avoid the temptation to make massive changes. It’s best to gradually shift things over time so customers see some level of continuity.

Create urgency. Running low on conversions? Nothing increases activity like creating urgency around a purchase decision. Simply adding a countdown clock to your online shopping cart or telling people a sale ends today is enough to spike conversions. According to one experiment, invoking urgency with follow-up instructions for taking action increased conversions by an incredible 25 percent.

Provide directional cues. People need to be directed through the conversion funnel – quite literally. Using arrows and other directional cues are proven to increase sales and conversions on product pages.

Use compelling CTAs. Nothing sells quite like a compelling call-to-action. Whenever you post something on social media, write a blog post, send an email, or design an ad, there needs to be a clear call-to-action. Suggest a tangible action on the part of the customer and give them a reason to follow through.

Putting Everything Together

In the end, your success will likely depend on how well you’re able to drive traffic to your site and convert visitors to customers. While far too many businesses focus on site traffic acquisition, what you need to worry about is what percentage of visitors are adding value to your bottom line. Use these 10 tactics and you’ll likely maximize conversions and increase profitability.